Thursday, 16 August 2012

Do you value your customers?

I recently outsourced some services to a
small business owner, though not established, the service provided was a big
relieve, and I hoped the transaction will create a lasting relationship between us. Since our first
meeting, we have done our transactions mainly through phone successfully on
four different occasions, and in all our discussions, I discovered I had to
introduce myself whenever I call because he did not store my number on his
phone.

Well, I felt I was not taken serious even
though both of us were profiting from the transaction; I had to end the
business relationship, and looked for another company to provide me with the same
service.

Any
relationship you cannot cherish, you cannot profit from it.

The starting point of any business is to
build relationships and values around people. People make up a business and any
business that will not take people seriously doesn’t deserve patronage. Until you
begin to see your customers beyond the transactions and the amount you will
earn from them, you will never take them serious. Forget about the customer
being king, we all know it is hypocritical. Every decision we make, we make for
the success of the business and not the customer.

Having value for your customers as much as
you have for your business, is what keeps customer centric businesses growing. No
matter how small the amount of the transaction, as long as you are profiting
from it, respect it.

Some of the mistakes we make include:

1.Failure to
keep individual data or record

Some small businesses fail to have a database
of their customers. They don’t know what their buying behavior is, they cannot
tell at what point they are likely to buy more or less. Having information of
your customers and their needs helps you serve them better.

2.Not dealing
with customer complain

This is quite obvious when there is a sudden
upsurge of patronage. When there are complains, business owners tend to ignore
it, sometimes, not deliberately. If this is allowed to continue, the result
will be so many customers withdrawing from patronizing you.

3.Focusing
more on current customers

It is good to make new customers, but better
to care for the old customers. The old customers will always be there when
things go wrong. They have become loyal unlike the new ones. Finding a balance
is very important as well as an attempt to convert the new customers into loyal
customers.